Performance study on evacuated tubular collector coupled solar still in West Texas climate

Experimental study was performed on a single basin active solar distillation system augmented with a solar collector using evacuated solar tubes. Field tests were conducted over several days under the climatic conditions of West Texas to evaluate the effect evacuated solar tubes have on the daily distillate yield rate. To investigate the feasibility of the solar tubes, active and passive solar stills with and without exterior insulation were examined. The maximum daily production rate for the active distillation system using evacuated solar tubes and the passive distillation system was 3.6 and 1.4 kg/m²day, respectively. The results showed the augmentation of the still with evacuated solar tubes increased its production capacity by a factor of 2.63. It also increased the maximum temperature of the water in the still basin by at least 20 °C. Economic analysis shows that it is feasible to use evacuated tubular collector coupled solar still as an alternative means for reclaiming water in farmlands with a payback period of approximately 6 years.     

Thermal analysis of tilted wick solar distillation-cum-drying system

The performance of the designed tilted wick solar water distillation-cum-drying unit has been tested at water flow rates of 50 and 65 ml/min in the distillation unit. Effect of water flow rates on the heat transfer coefficients of distillation and drying unit for drying ginger has been evaluated. The energy and exergy efficiency of the distillation system have also been evaluated. Average distillates of 2.36 and 2.2 l/m² were collected from the tilted wick solar still at flow rates of 50 and 65 ml/min, respectively. Large variation in convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients of distillation unit has been observed at given water flow rates. Water flow rate in the distillation unit significantly affects the performance of the drying unit. Average convective heat transfer coefficients of 6.56 and 3.75 W/m^{2 o}C have been observed for drying ginger at flow rates of 50 and 65 ml/min, respectively. Energy and exergy efficiency of the distillation unit have been found to be nearly 19% and 0.9%, respectively. Experimental uncertainty has also been evaluated for distillation and drying units. The distillate cost for the developed distillation-cum-drying unit is calculated as $0.03729/l along with dried ginger of about 2.5 kg/m²/day.     

Experimental investigation of a solar water distillation-cum-drying unit

In this communication, a new design of solar-energy-based water distillation cum drying unit with parabolic reflector has been designed, fabricated, and tested. Bitter gourd and potato slices are chosen as a drying commodity. Thermal performance of the developed system has been evaluated based on the experimental results and using linear regression analysis. Heat transfer coefficients (convective, evaporative, and radiative) for solar distillation system have been observed to be 2.48–4.09, 13.25–52.38, and 8.75–9.66 W/m²°C, respectively. Overall thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency for the distillation system has been found to be 18.77% and 1.2%, respectively. The convective heat transfer coefficient for potato slices are observed higher for initial hours and decreases as the day progresses. The average convective heat transfer coefficients for bitter gourd and potato slices have been observed as 2.18 and 5.04 W/m²°C, respectively. Experimental error in terms of percent uncertainty for bitter gourd and potato slices are found to be 42.93% and 37.06%, respectively. The present design of solar distillation and drying in a single unit could be beneficial for the development of remote, arid, and rural areas.     

Exergy and economic analysis of organic Rankine cycle hybrid system utilizing biogas and solar energy in rural area of China

Due to the existing huge biogas resource in the rural area of China, biogas is widely used for production and living. Cogeneration system provides an opportunity to realize the balanced utilization of the renewable energy such as biogas and solar energy. This article presented a numerical investigation of a hybrid energy-driven organic Rankine cycle (ORC) cogeneration system, involving a solar ORC and a biogas boiler. The biogas boiler with a module of solar parabolic trough collectors (PTCs) is employed to provide heat source to the ORC via two distinct intermediate pressurized circuits. The cogeneration supplied the power to the air-condition in summer condition and hot water, which is heated in the condenser, in winter condition. The system performance under the subcritical pressures has been assessed according to the energy–exergy and economic analysis with the organic working fluid R123. The effects of various parameters such as the evaporation and condensation temperatures on system performance were investigated. The net power generation efficiency of the cogeneration system is 11.17%, which is 25.8% higher than that of the base system at an evaporation temperature 110°C. The exergy efficiency of ORC system increases from 35.2% to 38.2%. Moreover, an economic analysis of the system is carried out. The results demonstrate that the profits generated from the reduction of biogas fuel and electricity consumption can lead to a significant saving, resulting in an approximate annual saving from $1,700 to $3,000. Finally, a case study based on the consideration of typical rural residence was performed, which needs a payback period of 7.8 years under the best case.     

Refrigeration waste heat utilization for drying applications: a review

ABSTRACT

Cold chain industry has a vast potential for waste heat recovery. It is a matter of importance for energy efficiency point of view, as global energy demand is increasing day by day. Ample amount of low-grade energy is either unutilized or underutilized. The heat rejected by a Heat pump or refrigeration system emerged as a promising solution for dehydration by utilizing low-grade waste heat despite higher investment. As compared to solar drying technology, heat pump drying evolved as a reliable method regarding better process control, energy efficiency, and quality of the product to be dried. Energy utilized through the refrigeration system’s waste/exhaust heat recovery in combination with or without renewable energy source enhances the overall efficiency of the system and also reduces the cost. This useful review investigated and compared the research findings of waste heat utilization through heat pump and from condenser of refrigeration system on laboratory, pilot as well as industrial scale for drying of various fruits, vegetables, and agro products. Various drying parameters like drying rate, moisture content, Specific Moisture Extraction Rate (SMER), Coefficient of Performance (COP), Exergy efficiency, and temperature as well as humidity conditions inside the drying chamber were also reviewed to promote the technological advancement of energy utilization by commercial cold storage waste heat recovery.     

Enhanced solar still productivity using transparent walls with an integral trough and organic porous absorber material

This experimental work has been conducted to compare the performance of the modified stills with that of the conventional still. Three modified stills (S1, S2, and S3) and conventional still (S4) were fabricated, each with 0.5 m² of the basin area. S1 and S3 had transparent double glass walls with air in between acting as insulation, whereas S2 has a single transparent wall. S4 has insulated plywood walls painted black from inside. A mixture of coco peat and charcoal was used in S1, S2, and S3, whereas there was no basin material for S4. Experiments were conducted by changing the water quantity in the solar still ranging from 5 to 10 kg. Maximum distillate output of 5.46 l/m²-d was obtained for S2, whereas it was 3.80 l/m²-d for S4 for an average solar radiation intensity of 675 W/m² (24.3 MJ/m²-d). Use of transparent walls with troughs to collect condensate increased the condenser area by 78.4%. The distillate water cost per liter was estimated as Rs. 0.86 (0.013 US$) and Rs. 1.61 (0.025 US$) for S2 and S4, respectively. Energy payback time for S2 was estimated as 4 months. Theoretical and experimental values showed that there is a significant loss of incoming solar radiation due to wall shadow.     

Thermal Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Photovoltaic Thermal (PV/T) Systems: A Parametric Study

Conventional solar photovoltaic (PV) module converts the light component of solar radiation into electrical power, and heat part is absorbed by module increasing its operating temperature. Combined PV module and heat exchanger generating both electrical and thermal powers is called as hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar system. The paper presents the design of a PV/T collector, made with thin film PV technology and a spiral flow absorber, and a simulation model, developed through the system of several mathematical equations, to evaluate the performance of PV/T water collectors. The effect of various parameters on the thermal and electrical efficiency has been investigated to obtain optimum combination of parameters. Finally, a numerical simulation has been carried out for the daily and annual yield of the proposed PV/T collector, and comparison with a standard PV module is discussed.     

Experimental study of new solar air heater design

The suitable design is the most important key to a cost-effective solar air heater. Although there are many techniques that have been proposed to improve the solar air heaters’ performance by means of different turbulence promoters, they cannot ensure a compromise between the cost and the effectiveness. The aim of this study is to find simple and tolerable solution to get rid of the inconvenience resulting from the widely adopted heat-transfer-enhancement techniques by providing an optimized solar air heater design. The proposed design consists of a slightly curved smooth flow channel with an absorber plate of convex shape. A prototype of a curved solar air heater of 1.28 m² collector area was built and tested under summer outdoor conditions in Biskra (Algeria). The performance was evaluated in terms of thermal and effective efficiency for mass flow rates of 0.0172, 0.029, and 0.0472 kg/sm². It is observed that the overall efficiency of this solar air heater is considerably higher in comparison with the efficiency range of the conventional smooth flat plate heaters reported in the literature for similar operating conditions.     

An affordable green energy source—Evolving through current developments of organic,dye sensitized,and perovskite solar cells

Intensive R&D efforts made in solar photovoltaic area has enabled Si, GaAs, CdTe, and CIGS devices exhibiting nearly ideal efficiencies. However, cost incurred per unit energy does not allow them to qualify for alternate energy source besides environmental issues at production floors. Consequently, search is still continuing not only to reduce cost by improved efficiency, reduced materials cost, and simplified processing resulting in a cleaner and greener technology. Current successes in organic, dye-sensitized, and perovskite solar cells with efficiencies in 10–15% range raise concrete hope for evolving a low cost and green technology involving solution processable organic/inorganic compounds extendable to roll-to-roll production. The current status and future prospects of these three promising routes are reviewed here highlighting the possibility of an emerging alternate green energy source to supplement the conventional ones at commercial level.     

Drying of salted silver jewfish in a hybrid solar drying system and under open sun: Modeling and performance analyses

This study investigated the thin-layer drying kinetics of salted silver jewfish in a hybrid solar drying system and under open sun. Ten drying models were compared with experimental data of salted silver jewfish drying. A new model was introduced, which is an offset linear logarithmic (offset modified Page model). The fit quality of the models was evaluated using the coefficient of determination (R²), root mean square error (RMSE), and sum of squared absolute error (SSAE). The result showed that Midilli et al. model and new model were comparable with two or three-term exponential drying models. This study also analyzed energy and exergy during solar drying of salted silver jewfish. Energy analysis throughout the solar drying process was estimated on the basis of the first law of thermodynamics, whereas exergy analysis during solar drying was determined on the basis of the second law of thermodynamics. At an average solar radiation of 540 W/m² and a mass flow rate of 0.0778 kg/sec, the collector efficiency and drying system efficiency were about 41% and 23%, respectively. Specific energy consumption was 2.92 kWh/kg. Moreover, the exergy efficiency during solar drying process ranged from 17% to 44%, with an average value of 31%. The values of improvement potential varied between 106 and 436 W, with an average of 236 W.     

An investigation of double-glass-covered trapezoidal salt-gradient solar pond coupled with reflector

In the present study, a trapezoidal salt-gradient solar pond (TSGSP) has been investigated experimentally. The top surface of solar pond has been covered with double-glass cover in order to reduce the evaporative and convective losses from the top. This results in increase of temperature even in the top zone of the solar pond and leads to more volume utilization for heat storage in the pond. A reflector made of aluminium sheet has been used to enhance the solar intensity on the solar pond during sunny hours. A procedure, to determine optimum tilt angle of reflector in order to utilize maximum amount of solar energy at noon, has been proposed. The use of reflector enhanced the average solar intensity on the top surface of solar pond by 22%. The maximum average temperature of trapezoidal solar pond with glass cover and reflector has been observed to be 70.5°C. The thermal efficiencies of LCZ, NCZ and UCZ for the trapezoidal solar pond with double-glass cover and reflector have been estimated to be 32.73%, 23.22% and 5.30%, respectively. In addition to experimental investigation, the sunny area ratio of TSGSP has been theoretically computed and compared with the cuboid solar pond having same top surface area and depth in order to see the effect of pond shape on sunny area ratio. The average yearly sunny area ratio of trapezoidal solar pond has been determined to be 11% higher than that of cuboid one.     

A comprehensive review of the energy efficiency on nano coated fin and tube condenser

The condenser is a piece of equipment used to effectively transfer heat from water to the environment. The fin and tube condenser is the most commonly used in commercial applications. The improved performance of heat transfer in the fin and tube condenser is a significant area of study all over the world because optimizing the efficiency of heat transfer in the condenser will contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of system performance. The vapor deposition, plasma spray, and thermal spray techniques are being used, and it is determined that a heat transfer enhancing coating improves condenser performance. This review discusses the nanomaterial coating over the fin and tube condenser in detail. The various nanomaterial coatings with various propositions and coating methods had been discussed with the evidence of previous researchers. At a 50-degree inclination angle on the condensate plate, the condensate over the coating surface increases by more than 30%. The thermal properties of the working fluid are improved over the condenser, and the overall effectiveness of the condenser is increased by approximately 40% over the non-coated condenser. A 1% volumetric concentration of Nanoparticles in the coated material achieves a maximum efficiency increase of 78.7%.     

Performance of a small-scale solar-powered adsorption cooling system

In this study, an experimental investigation on the performance of a small-scale residential-size solar-driven adsorption (silica gel-water) cooling system that was constructed at Assiut University campus, Egypt is carried out. As Assiut area is considered as hot, arid climate, field tests for performance assessment of the system operation during the summer season are performed under different environmental operating conditions. The system consists of an evacuated tube with a reflective concentration parabolic surface solar-collector field with a total area of 36 m², a silica gel-water adsorption chiller of 8 kW nominal cooling capacity, and hot and cold water thermal storage tanks of 1.8 and 1.2 m³ in volume, respectively. The results of summer season field test show that under daily solar insolation varying from 21 to 27 MJ/m², the solar collectors employed in the system had high and almost constant thermal efficiency. The daily solar-collector efficiency during the period of system operation ranged from about 50% to 78%. The adsorption chiller performance shows that the chiller average daily coefficient of performance (COP) was 0.41 with the average cooling capacity of 4.4 kW when the cooling-water and chilled-water temperatures were about 31°C and 19°C, respectively. As the chiller cooling water is cooled by the cooling tower in the hot arid area, the cooling water is at a higher temperature than the design point of the chiller. Therefore, an experiment was carried out using the city water for cooling. The results show that an enhancement in the chiller COP by 40% and the chilling power by 17% has been achieved when the city water was 27.7°C.     

Development of new monthly global and diffuse solar irradiation estimation methodologies and comparisons

In assessing and deciding the prediction schemes of solar irradiation countrywide, better the accuracy means better the management of energy transition toward renewables. Consequently, the present study is on the development of new models to make the most accurate possible estimations of the global and diffuse solar irradiation based on ground measurements. Such analysis produces the most accurate estimations for the input of solar energy systems. This is utmost significant for deciding the investments on solar energy systems and their design periods. Turkey is a high-potent country whose solar energy market has been growing rapidly. She doesn’t have adequate reliable measurement network and there is no estimation methodology developed for each and every point within its territory. Moreover, installing such a measurement system network doesn’t seem to be economically feasible and technically possible, inter alia. Accordingly, this study defines a methodology to make the most accurate estimations of monthly mean daily solar irradiation on horizontal surface and its diffuse and beam components. For the global and diffuse estimations, new methodologies in linear and quadratic forms are developed, compared, and discussed. The comparison is applied by using mean bias error and root mean square error statistical comparison methods. The measured data values used for modeling and comparisons are provided from the State Meteorological Service of Turkey responsible authority for solar irradiation measurements. The results revealed that the methodologies explained in this study give very high accurate values of total solar irradiation on a horizontal surface and its diffuse component.     

太阳能光伏发电成本及展望

针对太阳能电池的昂贵发电成本,分析和预测了国内外的太阳能光伏产业链的现状与发展;指出研制高效率、低成本太阳能光伏发电系统将是今后的任务。     

Efficiency enhancement in solar air heaters by modification of absorber plate-a review

This paper outlines a complete review on modifications made on the absorber plate of solar air heaters in order to improve the turbulence and heat transfer rate, thereby efficiency. Corrugated sheets, fins, extended surfaces, wire mesh, porous medium, etc., are a few of the modifications used. Most of such alterations in the absorber plate resulted with an increase in efficiency but associated with drawback of increased pumping power due to raising friction factor. Pumping power is considered here as a predominant comparison parameters of various solar air heaters with different absorber plate in terms of effective efficiency.     

太阳光催化反应器的研究进展

以太阳光为光源的光催化氧化技术是一种清洁和节能的污水处理技术。对廉价和高效的太阳光催化反应器的设计和放大是这项技术研究的关键,也是实现工业化应用的重要因素。结合近几年国外对太阳光催化反应器的研究,详细地讨论了目前几种太阳光催化反应器的发展及应用研究,比较了不同反应器的优缺点,同时提出一些建议和今后的研究方向。     

Global solar radiation and energy yield estimation from photovoltaic power plants for small loads

Daily global solar radiation on a horizontal surface and duration of sunshine hours have been determined experimentally for five meteorological stations in Saudi Arabia, namely, Abha, Al-Ahsa, Al-Jouf, Al-Qaisumah, and Wadi Al-Dawaser sites. Five-years of data covering 1998–2002 period have been used. Suitable Angstrom models have been developed for the global solar radiation estimation as a function of the sunshine duration for each respective sites. Daily averages of monthly solar PV power outputs have been determined using the Angstrom models developed. The effect of the PV cell temperature on the PV efficiency has been considered in calculating the PV power output. The annual average PV output energy has been discussed in all five sites for small loads. The minimum and maximum monthly average values of the daily global solar radiation are found to be 12.09 MJ/m²/d and 30.42 MJ/m²/d for Al-Qaisumah and Al-Jouf in the months of December June, respectively. Minimum monthly average sunshine hours of 5.89 hr were observed in Al-Qaisumah in December while a maximum of 12.92 hr in Al-Jouf in the month of June. Shortest range of sunshine hours of 7.33–10.12 hr was recorded at Abha station. Minimum monthly average Solar PV power of 1.59 MJ/m²/day was obtained at Al-Qaisumah in the month of December and a maximum of 3.39 MJ/m²/day at Al-Jouf in June. The annual PV energy output was found to be 276.04 kWh/m², 257.36 kWh/m², 256.75 kWh/m², 245.44 kWh/m², and 270.95 kWh/m² at Abha, Al-Ahsa, Al-Jouf, Al-Qaisumah, and Wadi Al-Dawaser stations, respectively. It is found that the Abha site yields the highest solar PV energy among the five sites considered.     

Theoretical Calculation and Economic Assessment of the Integrated Solar Combined Cycle Power Plants

The ISCC technology representing an integrated solar combined cycle and the economic assessment of ISCC are investigated. Comparisons conducted by theoretical calculation method among two cases, that is, an integrated solar combined cycle system (ISCCS) and a combined cycle gas turbine system (CCGTS) show that ISCCS provides the best solution with the highest efficiency of heat to electricity among them. The results reflected by theoretical calculation also reveal that ISCCS is beneficial to energy saving and emission reduction. Due to the great advantages of ISCC, comprehensive analysis on the basic conditions for building ISCC power plants is analyzed in detail.     

Canopy slope effect on the performance of the solar chimney power plant

Solar chimney power plants constitute an impressive construction by its size and its output seems low for its dimensions. Although many works have been carried out on the subject, there is still much scientific and technical improvement to be done. In the present work, we consider the modeling of turbulent flow under the effect of natural convection within a solar chimney power plant (SCPP) by performing numerical simulation using the Saturne Code coupled with Syrthes code. The objective of the study is the analysis of the collector cover slope influence on the performance of the SCPP in two cases. In the first case, the storage system considered is composed solely of the ground under the collector. For the second case, the storage system is made, in addition to the ground, of a 10 cm thick tub filled with water, covering the entire surface of the collector. The concept of minimizing the entropy production is also studied with the objective of optimizing the geometric configuration as well as the effect of the collector cover slope on the efficiency of SCPP. The boundary conditions are defined according to the meteorological data for a typical day available on the site of Adrar, Algeria. The results allow us to focus on the storage system influence on the SCPP performance and the duration of its operation after sunset. This leads to the improvement of the global efficiency of the SCPP. Results show the positive impact of the extra storage media use and the configuration which improves the velocity at the chimney entrance.